UNR Student Pictured at White Nationalist Rally in Virginia

Peter ‪Cvjetanovic‬: “I am sorry things turned out the way they did, and I give my condolences to the family of the victims, for whatever that’s worth.” ‪Cvjetanovic‬ is pictured here at last night’s “white nationalist” demonstration at the University of Virginia. Anadolu Agency, Getty Images. Republished under the fair use doctrine.

Images circulating online show a University of Nevada, Reno student at the center of last night’s University of Virginia (UVA) demonstration in Charlottesville, Va.

Violence at the demonstrations is drawing international condemnation.

According to the L.A. Times, three are dead from the protests: one after a car rammed through a crowd of counter-protestors today, and two Virginia State troopers died in a helicopter crash. Brawls have broken out at the rallies, which are attended by so-called white nationalists who are protesting the city’s plan to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. That removal is being litigated.

President Donald Trump and republican and democratic leaders denounced the violence.

The student photographed at last night’s rally was identified on social media by a number of people who know him. He is Peter Cvjetanovic, a UNR student and former North Valleys High School student.

Cvjetanovic confirmed to ThisisReno that he was at UVA protest.

His Facebook profile shows him to be a member of the International Group of National Conservatives (Alt-Right), Croation World Network CROWN and The Preservation of Sagas, Eddas, And Nordic History. A Twitter account for @PCvjetanovic was deleted after there were numerous tags identifying Cvjetanovic in the photograph.

“I did delete my twitter,” Cvjetanovic said. “I did not use it very much and I did not want to bring others down.”

Noel Scheuerman, who said she went to high school with Cvjetanovic, posted this on Facebook:

“Seeing this man face made my stomach CHURN. When it comes to something like this, I will tag and post until it turns into WILDFIRE. the man on the white, is Peter Cvjetanovic and he is a student at the University of Nevada. He studies political science and is a Reno Native. He works on campus.”

Bailey Gamberg posted this statement on Twitter:

when the main dude in this photo is in most of your history classes and always spouts fascist and racist comments pic.twitter.com/PIH3uXbqaZ

The UNR College Republicans published a photograph with U.S. Senator Dean Heller that allegedly also shows Cvjetanovic.

“The College Republicans have nothing to do with my personal ideology, and they should not be accused or attacked in any way,” Cvjetanovic said.

He denounced the violence.

“I did not go there to commit acts of violence, and that was not the goal of the rally, and no one was meant to be killed,” he said. “I am sorry things turned out the way they did, and I give my condolences to the family of the victims, for whatever that’s worth. I hope the man responsible is punished to the full extent of the law, regardless of personal ideology.”

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe authorized a state of emergency declaration today at the request of the Virginia State Police.

“My administration engaged in extensive planning and preparation to ensure that they rally in Charlottesville could be held in a safe and lawful environment,” he said. “It is now clear that public safety cannot be safeguarded without additional powers and that the mostly out-of-state protesers have come to Virginia to endanger our citizens and property.

“I am disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence these protesters have brought to our state…”

CORRECTION: This article original reported that three died from the car plowing into a crowd. The manner of death was clarified.

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Bob Conrad is co-founder of ThisisReno. He manages ThisisReno and Conrad Communications, LLC, his marketing communications consulting company (disclosure: he has two part-time contracts working for the University of Nevada, Reno). He is a part-time faculty member at Truckee Meadows Community College and is a regular contributor to Reno Public Radio.

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26 Comments

So it appears to me that UNR is condoning the Nazi culture because it respects diversity. Tell that to the families of the people here in town that have family members who perished in WWII at the hands of the Nazis. At the very least this ignorant pissant should be forced to sit before a panel of his political science peers to discuss his educational fate and should lose his job at UNR. Let him sling shit with his equals.

This boy is LITERALY wearing a polo with the emblem of Identity Europa, a well known white nationalist (re: white supremacist) group. This isn’t some simple mistake where the photo was taken and it ruined some poor boys reputation. He took the time to join a white supremacist organization and TRAVEL to support a rally for WHITE NATIONALISTS.

It is good that more people are openly discussing this event and the underlying issues. Please keep in mind a quote often attributed to the late Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.”

What we have been witnessing in the past few decades is a concerted political effort of ethnic cleansing that targets White, European culture. I saw the smug Northern Whites sneer as this so-called anti-racist movement worked to ban the display of the Confederate Battle Flag, then Confederate monuments and books about the Confederate era. The Northern Whites suddenly saw during the Trump campaign, glimmers that the so-called anti-racists were now coming for Old Glory (the U S Flag) and all monuments dedicated to White European people who founded the United States. Even though many Americans are of mixed ethnic backgrounds, more of our citizens are noticing the effort to destroy and ethnically cleanse White European culture from America, and even those of us who are not entirely “White” have had enough.

Those who wish to destroy White European culture here in the United States will hide behind names like, “anti-racist coalitions” but more and more of our citizens have awakened to their true ethnic cleansing agenda and are finally fighting back.

Men like Robert E. Lee lived exemplary lives, exhibiting the highest level of honor. He was offered command of the United States Army, but refused, rather than turn his sword on his native Virginia. He lost everything he had due to his participation in the war (Arlington Cemetery resides on Lee’s former homestead) During the war, he could have easily laid siege to Washington, which would have resulted in the Capital being destroyed. Instead, he met the Union Army out in Gettysburg rather than bombard Washington. General Lee was ordered by Confederate President, Jefferson Davis to continue fighting after Gettysburg, and to conduct guerrilla warfare (something that would have extended the War by 12-20 years according to most analyses). General Lee instead sought to end the War and surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. After the War, General Lee became President of Washington University in Lexington (now Washington and Lee) where he tirelessly worked to re-unite our nation and promote goodwill among all of our citizens. Anyone who reads accounts of his life will be struck by how Robert E. Lee lived his life with such honor. Like most Southerners, he fought not to affirm slavery, but to repel an invading army whose citizens in that era saw as the arm of an over-reaching distant federal government, intent on destroying the rights of states to self govern.

Such monuments should be maintained, first because General Lee lived and exemplary life, but also because our society mustn’t ever attempt to ethnically cleanse or cover-up our history. Thoughts and ideas about our tumultuous Civil War should always be openly discussed and the merit of each idea must be allowed to stand on its own merit.

One needn’t be a White Nationalist to oppose the current attempt to destroy White European culture in America, or to oppose attempts to ethnically cleanse our United States of any part of our collective culture.

Perhaps you might want to include the history of Wesley and Mary Norris? You won’t because it doesn’t fit your narrative. They don’t have statues because they were the slaves that Lee imprisoned, beat, and sold.

Robert E. Lee was indeed honorable, so much so that he himself did not want symbols of the Civil War maintained. Regarding war monuments, he wrote: ““It is wisest not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the example of those nations who have endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered.” So, in respect for the man, you should submit to his sage counsel.

“White European Culture” is in little threat of being obliterated from American culture. What advocates of cultural pluralism advocate is simply to remember that a vision of history that focusses exclusively on “White European Culture” is likely to gloss over the moral shortcomings of that culture, and too easily dismiss the contributions and experiences of others in the history of the United States. A thorough understanding of our nation’s history enables us see more clearly where we are, and appreciate the humanity of all of our fellow citizens.

Thankfully, yes, free-speech enables a healthy, democratic contest of ideas, but it should never be confused for a moral mandate to treat all ideas as equally valid or as equally non-threatening. Our country was founded on principles that I love, like liberty and equality, but it was also founded on behavior I abhore, perpetrated by the powerful against the powerless…

Your description of the “ethnic cleansing” of White America seems to ask that we see White America as a relatively powerless victim of brutal, vicious, and systematic attacks. Please understand that it’s hard for many of us to do so, in the face of such overwhelming historical evidence to the contrary. Native Americans didn’t commit genicide as they invaded Europe, they didn’t relocate indigenous Europeans, and they didn’t attempt to forcibly assimilate European children by taking them children from their homes and sending them to Native American boarding schools. European-Americans and their children weren’t brought, sold, and owned as personal property, nor forcibly held in mass as servants and sex slaves. Moreover, and as best I can tell, a Black & Brown government never targeted White populations for sterilization, denied them entry to colleges, jobs, and housing, nor looked the other way as Whites were routinely lunched, harassed, firebombed, threatened, and imprisoned. Finally, in my nearly 40-year lifetime I have yet to see an anti-immigration campaign that targets people who look and sound like the White majority.

Again, I agree that in this forum of free speech and open debate, it is entirely appropriate for you to champion the character of a man who fought on behalf of those who wished to own human beings. Nevertheless, while your arguments might consume just as much space like all the others, they are not nearly so equal in value or usefulness. In fact, I’m certain that you could use feces to ‘white-out’ every appearance of “liberty” and “equality” in every single one of America’s founding documents, and still not render material with less value than your cause.

Yes, I understand. It’s often easier to take on the role of victim than to acknowledge your own power and privilege. It’s also easier to be self-righteous, while shirking your responsibility as a citizen to align American government & culture with those high-ideas espoused in its’ constitution. Still, when you use terms like, “ethnic cleansing” and “victimization” to describe this perceived threat to White America, please at least pretend like you understand that “your people” were never systematically murdered, forcibly relocated, lynched, brought, sold, and raped, and you sure as hell weren’t deported!

While you do that, I and others like me, will contiue to fill our civil discourse and open debate with more valuable arguments–the kind that lift the cloak of oppression off the backs of the oppressed and the white sheets off the heads of the oppressors–the kind that honor the dignity of every single human being… We’ll keep working to remind everyone that “We the people…” should never, ever be taken as, “We the privleged and powerful…”

Finally, I appeal to you to consider the two ways our grandchildren might look at a statue erected in your honor: here’s our monument to a terrified man who fought to hold onto his privledge and power over others up to his very last breath, or, here’s a man who gave his voice to the voiceless, his power to the powerless, and his life to liberty & justice for all.

What I would love to know is why this poor child (because I refuse to call him a man) was/is not being properly educated by the University of Nevada, Reno and, obviously, also did not receive proper instruction in U.S. history when he attended North Valley High School (if that is, in fact, where Cvjetanovic matriculated from high school). Given his comments about why he felt the need to go all the way across country to attend this rally, he clearly did not know the history of white supremacist organizations, nativist organizations, how, when and why these types of statues were actually erected. Or, he does know these things and he wishes to feign ignorance in hopes that no one calls him out for these ridiculous contradictions between one stating that one, for example, “did not go there to commit acts of violence…” with the knowledge that white nationalist groups have a history of perpetuating violence and, historically. Even if one knows nothing but what one might know from say, for example, a child’s understanding of the Civil Rights movement, one would have seen pictures of young boys, such as himself, shouting with a torch in hand (just like him). About the only thing that wouldn’t have been recognizable to a child from the 1920s, 30s, 40s or 50s is the fact that Cvjetanovic’s face was in color… that would have struck them as odd.

So, question: What’s the phone number to his department at the University of Nevada? And his former high school? I think several people need to explain why this young man didn’t receive a proper education.

Do not confuse education with indoctrination. What students receive today is not, in most instances, education but indoctrination. I am reserving any conclusion about the motivation of the participants on BOTH sides. The anti-racist movement has been shown to be funded by George Soros. While so called “White Nationalist” groups are often funded by the FBI (Counter Domestic Terrorism task force)as a way to attract and identify people who the FBI believes might be prone to aid domestic terrorism (ex. Tim McVeigh). The FBI sometimes misidentifies groups. For example, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (a group that merely restores cemeteries and puts on battle re-enactments) was infiltrated by the FBI because the boobs in D.C. believed that since the (left-wing) Southern Poverty Law Center called the group, “Neo-Confederate” that they must be similar to “Neo-Nazi” when nothing is further from the truth. The Sons of Confederate Veterans are generally a bunch of old guys whose biggest impact on the local community are their pancake breakfasts that raise money for cemetery monument restoration.

By the way, nothing says “government procurement” quite like 150 identical tiki torches. Just a hint that things are not always what they appear on initial inspection.

Look, if I was going to protest JUST for a statue being taken down I would have gotten the hell out as soon as I saw Nazi flags, racist chants, and torches. He stayed and lit a torch. The way he has acted in his classes in mind, easy to say he is a racist.

Jahn Henderson, are you from the US? Because it appears that you don’t understand the Constitution. People have a right to counter protest. Look up the march in Skokie, IL if you need some background on that. See, if people had fought against the Nazis in the 1930s, which is what these guys are, maybe history would be different. Basically what the majority in this country are trying to tell these vermin is not here, not in my country. We will not stand idly by while they terrorize people.

Check your facts. Nazis didn’t march in Skokie. Because of the protests, and the legal ruling, the march was moved and they didn’t show. They had a right to march but they didn’t ha a right to incite violence. Which is exactly what the Neo-nazis and right wing trumpbags just did in VA.

I noticed this article did not tell the whole story. The white nationalist group, had a permit for there protest, which was peaceful until the blm and antifa punks showed up to “counter protest” without permits, and started the violence. I am not condoning these people, but let’s not change the narrative of what happened there to make it look like they are fully to blame.

Antifa “punks”? No, Jahn, you are ABSOLUTELY condoning the actions of the white nationalists. Stop pretending to hide behind your racist hatred in your cry for fair and balanced reporting. The fact that the white supremacists obtained permits for their protest does not justify the fact that one of their very own plowed a car through a principled and steadfast gathering of citizens engaged in a moral and civic imperative. You and your ilk thoroughly disgust me. You do not represent the America I stand for.

First of all you don’t need a permit to protest and the white nationalists group held a rally which is what their “permit” was far, the anti protesters were of all races and by the way BLM is multicultural and multiracial.

This was actually the night BEFORE the permitted rally. On the UVA campus. Screaming at students and dousing them with lighter fluid while chanting anti-Semitic and racist epithets. I was there. Get the facts right.

What difference does it make if they had a permit? “Both sides” did not come armed with long guns. “Both sides” did not come armed with sticks. “Both sides” did not come in para-military gear. “Both sides” did not come with Nazi flags. “Both sides” did not come with Confederate flags. “Both sides” were not giving the Nazi salute. “Both sides” did not drive a car into a crowd of people with the intent of killing and maiming. It was only one side that did that. These are violent, hateful people. THAT IS THE WHOLE STORY.